MacMillan's Reading Books eBook

Anon as King Arthur heard this he was greatly displeased,
for he wist well that they might not again say their
avows. “Alas!” said King Arthur unto
Sir Gawaine, “ye have nigh slain me with the
avow and promise that ye have made. For through
you ye have bereft me of the fairest fellowship and
the truest of knighthood that ever were seen together
in any realm of the world. For when they depart
from hence, I am sure they all shall never meet more
in this world, for they shall die many in the quest.
And so it forethinketh me a little, for I have loved
them as well as my life, wherefore it shall grieve
me right sore the departition of this fellowship.
For I have had an old custom to have them in my fellowship.”
And therewith the tears filled in his eyes. And
then he said, “Gawaine, Gawaine, ye have set
me in great sorrow. For I have great doubt that
my true fellowship shall never meet here again.”
“Ah,” said Sir Launcelot, “comfort
yourself, for it shall be unto us as a great honour,
and much more than if we died in any other places,
for of death we be sure.” “Ah, Launcelot,”
said the King, “the great love that I have had
unto you all the days of my life maketh me to say such
doleful words; for never Christian king had never so
many worthy men at this table as I have had this day
at the Round Table, and that is my great sorrow.”
When the queen, ladies, and gentlewomen wist these
tidings, they had such sorrow and heaviness that there
might no tongue tell it, for those knights had holden
them in honour and charity.

And when all were armed, save their shields and their
helms, then they came to their fellowship, which all
were ready in the same wise for to go to the minster
to hear their service.

Then, after the service was done, the King would wit
how many had taken the quest of the Holy Grail, and
to account them he prayed them all. Then found
they by tale an hundred and fifty, and all were knights
of the Round Table. And then they put on their
helms and departed, and recommended them all wholly
unto the queen, and there was weeping and great sorrow.

And so they mounted upon their horses and rode through
the streets of Camelot, and there was weeping of the
rich and poor, and the King turned away, and might
not speak for weeping. So within a while they
came to a city and a castle that hight Vagon.
There they entered into the castle, and the lord of
that castle was an old man that hight Vagon, and he
was a good man of his living, and set open the gates,
and made them all the good cheer that he might.
And so on the morrow they were all accorded that they
should depart every each from other. And then
they departed on the morrow with weeping and mourning
cheer, and every knight took the way that him best
liked.

SIR
THOMAS MALORY.

[Notes: The Quest of the Holy Grail.
This is taken from the ’Mort d’Arthur,’
written about the end of the fifteenth century by Sir
Thomas Malory, and one of the first books printed
in England by Caxton. King Arthur was at the
head and centre of the company of Knights of the Table
Bound. The Holy Grail, or the Sangreal,
was the dish said to have held the Paschal lamb at
the Last Supper, and to have been possessed by Joseph
of Arimathea.